Raising Chickens- What I've Learned So Far.

First lesson I learned? Baby chickens STINK.

I learned this the hard way, by starting off with them in a brooding box, inside my house....and I place full blame upon the Internet. (suprise, suprise)


Apparently, America is full of people who are successfully raising baby chickens inside their own homes. Google anything related to "raising baby chickens" and you'll find a lot of detailed & descriptive setups for brooding boxes. The vast majority of the brooder setups I found, folks were keeping them in their homes- in guest rooms, offices, and in one case I found...a DINING ROOM. I can reach no other conclusion but to think these people were also born without the sense of smell.


Brooding baby chicks in my guest room worked for ONE NIGHT. ONE. I woke up after that first night, to find the entire house reeking of baby chicken.


It also didn't help that I'd decided to be nice & give my recently-skunked dog, Chloe, a chance to re-gain bed priveleges. She'd had the peroxide/baking soda bath....the odor was almost gone, except on her head. Of course, when I woke up in the morning, the first thing I smelled was baby chicken. So I rolled over, only to find Chloe's head on the pillow next to me. Not thinking, I buried my head under the covers with Chloe, and got a nose full of skunky dog head.


By that point, I was awake, nauseated, and bound & determined to get those baby chickens OUT OF MY HOUSE, come hell or high water. I checked the Internet to make sure it was alright to brood baby chicks in a garage....not sure why I was willing to trust the Internet after it had already failed to warn me about the fragrance of baby poultry, but I did. It was oddly difficult to find much information on the subject since it seemed like everybody was just hunky-dory turning their homes into chicken coops, but I finally found enough to convince me that it WAS alright, by reading several threads on the Backyardchickens.com forums (excellent source for info, by the way!)


Fortunately, the property I rent has an old commercial pheasant breeding facility behind it, complete with 2 brooding houses. I'd already obtained the landlord's permission to use a brooding house for my chickens, but I hadn't gotten around to getting a place cleaned and set up for them. I'd hoped to brood them in a warm box for a while and then move them to the house once they started getting pinfeathers but weren't ready to be totally off the lamp yet. But, there is ALSO a garage beside my house that used to be the hatchery. I had to go to town & buy a chain to hang the heat lamp from the ceiling, but it took all of 45 minutes to set up that brooder in the old hatchery.


So, for about a month, my chickens resided in the old hatchery and did just fine. When they got older, and I decided to buy some ducks to go with them, I had to buy a bigger tank, and just put the big chicks in the big tank, and put the ducks in the 40 gallon. THEN I learned ducks grow a LOT faster than chicks!! The ducks quickly outgrew the 40 gallon tank (and they are 10 times messier than chicks; I think they shit as frequently as they breathe- yet I have also found people who raise DUCKLINGS in their houses!) so about 4 days ago I moved EVERYBODY over to the brooding house. Set up a heat lamp in one corner, 2 waterers, 3 feeders, and a pallet so those who wish to perch, may do so. They've stunk up the brooding house but that's what it's for!


A rundown of my flock: 15 "assorted pullets" from Tractor Supply (mostly red sex links, with 3 white Leghorns I believe). 8 straight run "Easter Eggers" from Bomgaar's (The ones that lay greenish/blue eggs....I bought 10, two died). 4 straight run Black Australorps from Tractor Supply, though one looks like an EE in disguise. One bantam Cochin (I think that's what he is...his feather feet made him an impulse purchase) and one Mystery Chick, yellow with gray dappled wings, that I bought so my bantam wouldn't be lonely on the ride home. Plus the ducks- 4 Rouens (or Mallards, time will tell- but as big as they're growing I'm betting Rouen) and two Cayugas.


That makes 29 chickens and 6 ducks. If all goes well, I'll have plenty of eggs and at least a couple of chicken dinners later this year :).


Next year....I am very seriously contemplating geese & turkeys. Though I am not sure I can eat a turkey, after seeing vivid photographs of turkey wattles. They look like diseased, warty, old man testicles. I just don't think I can eat an animal with an inflamed scrotum hanging off its face: